The Riddle Problem

The Vanishing Acts of Hermione Granger

Hermione had not known sense for a long time. Or perhaps "time" wasn't the right word for her situation. She'd been stuck in a loop of sorts, a loop in which she could change no events nor alter the simplest of happenings. A loop, which, unfortunately, she had gone into by choice. 

Nearing the end of the war Hermione had taken a chance. They were losing, and no one knew how to stop their inevitable fate. 

In her desperation, Hermione turned to the one thing that would give them a chance- however slight it may have been: dark magic. She poured over spell books for hours on end, nearly driving herself mad- when one day, almost a month into her research, she found it. The one thing that could save the world of magic and muggles alike. It was a curse of sorts- teetering precariously on the edge of a death wish- but if modified correctly could work miracles. 

Hermione had found a way to send herself back into time and end the monster that would destroy them all, with one catch: she could only return if she succeeded- if Tom Riddle never became Voldemort. You see, the curse was originally made to send a victims back in time and trap them in a never ending repetition of a day in which they suffered the most. A sort of personal hell. Hermione had found a way to recreate the same curse, but instead of targeting a date in the victims mind, she could send herself anywhere in time. However, she couldn't undo the curse's ability to never end. In order to return to her home, she'd have to succeed to make sure she'd create a timeline in which she never had to cast the curse on herself. 

She'd find that it was easier said than done. Tom Riddle was destined to become Voldemort. He was not, however, destined to be stopped. She'd killed him in five different timelines, the result was always one of two: she either found she couldn't go home, or when she was able to return- she didn't exist. In either instance, she'd send herself back and stop herself from killing him, dying in the process. Seeing as she had returned from the future, it had no effect on her past self. In short, Hermione had died a total of five times. 

 Her mission, she found, was impossible. Every other possible outcome was worse than the former, someone else either became Voldemort, and she would inevitably cast the curse on herself to stop them, or a timeline in which she lived simply ceased to exist. 

A year of this, and she was understandably going insane. In an act of desperation, she modified the curse once again, combining it with some other spell she could now no longer remember the use of. Proceeding this, her plans truly went to hell. She found herself disapparating, unable to control where she went or when. One thing was constant though: Tom Riddle. Wherever she went, there he was, and he had always remembered her, always. 

 So, on that night, when Hermione found herself once again staring into the cold, calculating eyes of the man who would one day steal away her very existence, she was confounded by his obliviousness. He didn't remember all the other encounters they'd had, he didn't know who she was. 

It was on this day that Hermione Granger's curse shattered, and her vanishing acts ceased. The day on which the first step was taken onto an entirely different timeline. One in which not only did the Dark Lord live, but one in which he was accompanied by a certain Dark Lady.